Mormons

Poul Anderson, Harvest Of Stars, 14.

I can never predict what I will find to post about when I read a page of a text by Poul Anderson. Why Mormons?

"'They're Mormons, if that rings a bell in you. The Avantists are particularly hard on their church. The claim is that its premises are antiscientific, but the truth is that its congregations object loudly to the molding of posthuman man.'" (p. 154)

"I hope my Mormon friends won't mind my saying that their church, like our country, has a grand science fiction flavor about it. That ecclesiastical division into stakes and wards is pure Heinlein, isn't it?"
-Poul Anderson, "The Discovery of the Past" IN Anderson, Past Times 182-206 AT p. 199.

Mormons are one of the many religious communities that survive in SM Stirling's Emberverse.

One of our sf writers is a Mormon.

Some people dismiss all religious street propagandists as much the same. In fact, Evangelicals, Mormons, Witnesses and Christadelphians differ considerably. I find Mormons willing to listen. They have been sent out into the world to propagate their beliefs and, in the process, they encounter alternative ideas for the first time. One asked me what was the purpose of life and seemed astonished and interested when I replied that life has no purpose; it evolved. Several Mormons have advised me to find the truth about religious matters by asking God the Father in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, so I have done this.

Incidentally, Christadelphians originated in Birmingham, England, where there is now a Buddhist Center and a Central Mosque. There are both Christian and Muslim street preachers and propagandists. Although I have visited the Buddhist Center, it is convenient to meditate in a church in the city center.

Mormons

(Salt Lake City. That is a bit impressive: that city with those skyscrapers and trees right beside those mountains.)

Blog subjects can come out of the blue. SM Stirling's Change survivors include Mormons and that reminded me of something that Poul Anderson wrote:

"I hope my Mormon friends won't mind me saying that their church, like our country, has a grand science fiction flavor about it. That ecclesiastical division into stakes and wards is pure Heinlein, isn't it? And so, by the way, is the raw courage with which their pioneers entered the wilderness."
-Poul Anderson, "The Discovery of the Past" IN Anderson, Past Times (New York, 1984), pp. 182-206 AT p. 199.

Heinlein's Future History includes an American theocracy. We have mentioned Mormons a few times. A few more thoughts came to mind but they are not really relevant to anything else so I will leave it there.

An Answer To A Prayer

"Star of the Sea," 3.

Should the rebels sacrifice a Roman prisoner?

Veleda (see image):

"'I have spent this while mutely calling on Niaerdh. Does she want yon blood or no? She has given me no sign. I believe that means no.'" (p. 500)

I agree. If we pray, then it is down to us to interpret the answer, if any. Mormon missionaries told me their way to learn the truth about religious matters: ask God in the name of His Son. So I did, one evening before meditating. There was no visible or audible response. This means either that there was no answer or that the answer was, "Continue as you are, at least for the time being."

I have been as honest as I could with a couple of Mormons. (I usually find that they are willing to listen. Presumably, their missionary activity is a learning experience, bringing them directly into contact with every other world-view.)

It may seem strange to jump from first-century Pagans to twenty-first century Mormons but we must each respond to life and to our fellow human beings as we find them here and now.

A Scriptural Tradition

Operation Chaos, XXVII.

This blog follows Poul Anderson's texts wherever they go and they go everywhere. Anderson imagines a fictional continuation of the Semitic scriptural tradition.

A scripture, I think, is a writing regarded as authoritatively true on religious matters by members of a particular religion.

The Semitic tradition:

Samaritans accept only the Law;

the New Testament refers to the Law and the Prophets;

Luke 24:24 refers to the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms;

Marcion opposed "Gospel and Apostle" to Law and Prophets ("Gospel" = Luke's Gospel minus OT quotations; "Apostle" = Paul's Epitles);

the Christian Bible incorporated the Hebrew scriptures rearranged and a longer New Testament;

a Council of Rabbis in 100 AD closed their canon as the Law, the Prophets and the Writings;

Muhammad replaced the Bible with the Koran which incorporates some Biblical stories;

Luther excluded the Apocrypha;

Sikhs adopted the Granth which is hymns, some written by Muslims;

Mormons add the Book of Mormon;

Bahais have some additional texts;

Anderson's Johannites replace the OT with texts that others regard as blasphemous and adds to the NT a lot of the Apocrypha plus other texts from unidentifiable sources.

(Two meanings of "Apocrypha": excluded from the OT or not included in the NT.)

In Robin Hood's Barn

Orbit Unlimited.

Literary References 

Alice

Mephistopholes

Donne

Dante's seventh circle

Christian leaving the City of Destruction

 

Historical References

Egypt

Babylon

Rome

India

China

the Puritan Commonwealth

the Periclean era

the Renaissance

the Rome of Commodus

Massachusetts

Maryland

Pennsylvania

 

Religious References

a white church

a smiling idol

monastic orders in four milieus

English Puritans

Quakers

Catholics

Mormons

a Buddha

Jewish Zealots

Russian Old Believers

 

Philosophical References

Socrates

Spengler

Machiavelli

 

Astronomical References

Epsilon Eridani

E Eridani

Shifting Alliances, Exotic Or Mundane

Historically, allies and enemies change places, sometimes rapidly.

Mongo
Ming divides and rules. Only a hero from off planet can unite Lion-Men, Bird-Men, Tree-Men etc against their common oppressor.

Barsoom
John Carter:
was a Captain in the Army of the Confederate States;
became first a captive, then a chieftain, of Thark;
unprecedently united green hordes with each other and with red Heliumites against red Zodangans;
became a Prince of Helium;
overthrew white therns and Black Pirates;
gained the alliegance of the latter;
was proclaimed Jeddak of Jeddaks, Warlord of Barsoom;
but then tried to end the constant Barsoomian warfare;
was last seen defending Barsoom against invaders from Jupiter.

Technic Civilization
Gorzuni enslaved human beings but later were hired as mercenaries.
Technic civilization saved Merseia and earned undying hatred.
Avalon resisted the Terran Empire but later helped it against the Merseian Roidhunate.
Some human beings willingly served the Roidhunate whereas Dennitzans of Merseian descent were loyal to the Terran Emperor.

The Emberverse
Wiccans, Catholics and Mormons unite against the Church Universal and Triumphant.

Britain Now
Contestants in a General Election unite against terrorists. Twice, the Election campaign has had to be suspended. But issues connect. Some politicians are accused of supporting terrorists. Others are accused of provoking terrorism and underfunding counter-terrorism. Those who think that they have a solution have to acknowledge that part of the problem is no agreed solution.

Some Trivia

In The Shield Of Time, the list of Tor books by Poul Anderson ends with Tales of the Time Patrol, asterisked as "forthcoming." It forthcame as The Time Patrol. Thus, the full list of Time Patrol collection titles used or unused becomes:

Guardians Of Time (4 stories)
The Guardians Of Time (5)
Annals Of The Time Patrol (7)
Tales Of The Time Patrol (unused)
The Time Patrol (9)
Time Patrol (10)

As previously argued, I think that, if the Time Patrol series is to be collected in two long volumes, then Volume I should be nine stories with a revised order so maybe another slight title change would be appropriate? Also, "The Time Patrol and The Shield Of Time" sounds good as a diptych.

I will be strongly tempted to stop at 140 posts for this month, thus making the 1st post of September the 901st of 2015. I find round numbers more satisfactory. Meanwhile, the next post is usually being mentally drafted.

Ketlan's other daughter is visiting with her family this week so we will drive with them to the Lake District tomorrow. A good day but a desert for posting.

Americans, you export to the UK good sf, comic books and Mormon missionaries. I find that young Mormons listen to what I say. By proselytizing, they learn about alternatives.

Avantists And Mormons

Harvest Of Stars, 14.

"'The Avantists are particularly hard on [the Mormon] church. The claim is that its premises are antiscientific, but the truth is that its congregations object loudly to the molding of posthuman man.'" (p. 154)

Of course Mormonism is not scientific but will society be scientifically educated by a regime that denounces churches as "antiscientific" any more than by churches that denounce alternative worldviews as "heretical"?

Mormonism is an American frontier rewrite of Christianity so does it have some affinity with the American sf idea of an interstellar frontier? Maybe. Poul Anderson says it better than me:

"I hope my Mormon friends won't mind my saying that their church, like our country, has a grand science fiction flavor about it. That ecclesiastical division into stakes and wards is pure Heinlein, isn't it? And so, by the way, is the raw courage with which their pioneers entered the wilderness."

-Poul Anderson, "The Discovery of the Past" IN Anderson, Past Times (New York, 1984), pp. 182-206 AT p. 199.

A Midsummer Tempest VII

Some Ongoing Points of Interest

Valeria Matuchek is a continuing character. She is a baby at the end of Operation Chaos and a teenager in Operation Luna and makes a cameo appearance as a graduate student in A Midsummer Tempest, although only in the "behind the scenes" space of the Old Phoenix. That gives her slightly more exposure than Holger Danske who stars in Three Hearts And Three Lions and cameos with Valeria in A Midsummer Tempest. We have seen two generations of Matucheks on the Earth where magic/"paraphysics" is both science and technology.

Regarding those "ten lost tribes of Israel," I think the Mormons claim that they became the Native Americans? I think also that, in Biblical terms, being lost from the sight of God means ceasing to exist? And that makes sense historically. A tribe that has failed to maintain its identity, has dispersed and intermarried, has thereby ceased to continue its independent existence. It has not gone to some place so that scholars can deduce where it has gone. Instead, it has gone out, like a switched off light.

I remember that humour was a feature of A Midsummer Tempest (London, 1975) and that Puritans were often the butt of the humour. However, I am at present rereading some harrowing scenes of oppression, flight and pursuit although this line struck me as comical:

"A man, ugly, unkempt, and smelling of manure, slouched in the outer doorway." (p. 61)

Everyday Life And Continuing Struggles

This evening I was going to attend our meditation group where there will be a visiting monk. Then I planned instead to meditate at home earlier in the day and to leaflet for the General Election in the evening. Then the veinous condition in my legs intervened, making it advisable to return to Plan A, to sit instead of to walk. Meanwhile, I find time to blog.

Reality and fiction run in parallel. SM Stirling's Wiccans, Benedictines and Mormons differ theolgically but share civilized values that enable and oblige them to unite against CUT which sometimes sounds like ISIS especially when one its men swears by the beard of the Prophet!

Life is a mixture of good and bad and one of its goods is fictional narratives that reflect life but that endanger the characters, not the readers.

Around Lancaster

Short posts like this one suit my life style. If I am back in the house for twenty minutes during the day, then I might be able to write and publish a post of a few sentences and then nothing more for several hours. Meanwhile, real life displays all the issues addressed by Poul Anderson, which we might summarize as: conflict and humanity. Tomorrow I will have coffee with another Paul whose outlook is very different from mine but, for this reason, we should be able to learn. Once, Paul referred to "one of the big leftists in town." I did not know who he meant but then he added "Eugene, I think he's called." A comrade!

Also in Lancaster, I met a black Jehovah's Witness and gave him my interpretation of the New Testament. After a long conversation, we introduced ourselves by name and discovered that we were Simon Peter and Paul. Many of us ask the same questions but find different answers. I have found that Mormons listen because for the first time they are hearing a different worldview. Anderson referred to Mormon friends in "The Discovery of the Past."

Addendum: This post was terminated abruptly last night. There is further discussion of "The Discovery of the Past," here.

Mormons And SF

 

Was the Book of Mormon influenced by an sf novel? See the combox here.

I ask this question again because I suddenly remembered the following passage:

"I hope my Mormon friends won't mind my saying that their church, like our country, has a grand science fiction flavor about it. That ecclesiastical division into stakes and wards is pure Heinlein, isn't it? And so, by the way, is the raw courage with which their pioneers entered the wilderness."

-"The Discovery of the Past," p. 199.

 

Lastly, a recently successful sf writer is a Mormon.

 

I am out of here.